‘The Last Guardian’ Will Be Absent From TGS 2011

If you were waiting to see what Fumito Ueda’s next masterpiece of gaming was going to look like this year at Tokyo Game Show 2011, you’re going to be disappointed. The Last Guardian will be woefully absent from the trade show this year.

Fear not, that doesn’t mean the game will never see the light of day, Ueda-san and Team Ico are working hard to ensure it will probably make us all cry and once again, challenge our notions of video game art.

The most recent info we have on The Last Guardian was straight from Ueda-san regarding the game’s delay out of 2011. Very little information about the game is available, other than scant details delivered by Ueda-san – shared via his Twitter account. That said, there’s very little doubt that the game will be worth the wait. Ueda-san has somehow mastered extrapolating incredible games through base human emotions – especially our need to rely on others. Ico had to save Yorda, Wander had his horse, and Toriko (the animal) will have the boy.

Marketing manager for Sony, Brian Dunn, posted on the PlayStation Blog and talked a little about the absence of The Last Guardian from TGS 2011. Here are his bittersweet words.

“We wanted to confirm that The Last Guardian is not on the schedule for this year’s Tokyo Game Show.

“However we can assure you that Ueda-san and the rest of the development team are hard at work to bring his lofty vision to life and deliver the very best gaming experience possible.”

Lofty vision? Does Fumito Ueda have any other kinds of visions? Probably not, which is why it’s taking so long to complete The Last Guardian. We’re all anxious to see the dynamics between a boy and his griffin as well as how the narrative and gameplay bleed into each other. There’s nothing left to do but wait until the next announcement. Until then, we recommend you watch My Neighbor Totoro to get your giant imaginary animal and child sidekick fix in.

The Last Guardian is releasing sometime in 2012 exclusively for the PlayStation 3.